These days, machine type communication is rapidly evolving from a Machine to Machine (M2M) concept capable of performing intelligent communication between people and things, or between things, using a mobile communication network into a concept of interacting with all information of real and virtual worlds as well as things while extending its area to the Internet. Namely, M2M that enables the intelligent communication between people and things, or between things, anytime and anywhere in real time in a stable and convenient manner is extending its area to the Internet of Things (IoT) while connecting all surrounding things through the Internet.
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a technology of connecting various types of things, which have a sensor and a communication function embedded therein, to the Internet. Here, the things include various embedded systems (a computer system of an electronic device such as a smart phone), such as home appliances, mobile equipment, wearable computers, etc. The things connected to the IoT have to be connected to the Internet with unique IPs by which the things can be identified, and may have sensors embedded therein for acquiring information from an external environment.
An example of a network to which such an IoT is applied is illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example IoT network. Referring to FIG. 1, the IoT network 100 may include a smart LED 10, a thermometer 20, a washing machine 30, a smart refrigerator 40, a robotic vacuum cleaner 50, a smart TV 60, a digital camera 70, a smart phone 80, a wearable device 70, and the like.
The devices that constitute the IoT network 100 may be classified into: small things that have comparatively simple unique functions and accordingly have small hardware for providing IoT services, such as the smart LED 10 and the thermometer 20; big things that have no display, such as the washing machine 30, the smart refrigerator 40, and the robotic vacuum cleaner 50; and big things that have displays, such as the smart TV 60, the digital camera 70, the smart phone 80, and the wearable device 90.
The devices may transmit and receive data packets that include sensor data measured through sensors included therein or information collected thereby. Accordingly, information may be collected by a specific device, for example, the smart phone 80 and may be provided to users. Alternatively, the information may be provided to an external service server, which makes it possible to provide services using the information. For example, a room temperature measured by the thermometer 20 may be transmitted to the smart phone 80, and a user may identify the temperature to control the room temperature.
Accordingly, each device that constitutes the IoT network 100 may operate as one node, and the devices, such as the smart TV 60, the digital camera 70, the smart phone 80, and the wearable device 90, may be specified as sink nodes that collect information of the other node devices.